Driven by growth in its compounding business, Dandurand Drugstore is reconfiguring its space to make room for a larger lab.

Mike Dandurand, owner and pharmacist, tells me that work on the roughly $190,000 renovation started Monday. He says the project is expected to take six weeks to complete.

The centerpiece of the renovation, Dandurand says, is a larger compounding lab, which will be relocated to a section of the building at 7732 E. Central that previously was used for retail. That portion of the business will be moved elsewhere in the building.

A building permit for a portion of the project will appear in Friday’s “For the Record” section of the Wichita Business Journal.

Dandurand says the demand for prescription compounding services continues to increase, and the pharmacy had run out of space to provide that service. Prescription compounding is a process through which medications are customized to meet dosage needs or include ingredients not available from manufacturers.

This is an example of a locally owned pharmacy not backing down from the big companies that offer pharmacy services, like Dillons, Walgreens, Walmart and now CVS, and continuing to grow.

But some local pharmacy owners don’t feel they can continue to compete with the big stores.

The Wichita Eagle reported Wednesday that the owner of the Medicine Shoppe had sold his business to CVS because he couldn’t compete with CVS, Dillons’ and Walmart’s pharmacies near 21st and Amidon. CVS is set to open this week on the northwest corner of that intersection.

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